Keep Your Hilton Honors Points From Expiring with a $1 Amazon Purchase

May 23, 2019 By Jonathan Ping 13 Comments
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hiltonhonors0Updated with alternative method. My relative lack of travel these days means that I am constantly keeping miles and points from expiring. Here’s the official policy of Hilton Honors point expiration:

Hilton Honors Points do not expire as long as Members remain active in the program. To keep an account active, Members can stay at one of Hilton’s hotels, or earn or redeem Hilton Honors Points within 12 months. [For Hilton Honors credit card holders, Hilton Honors Points will not expire as long as the Member is a cardholder in good standing.]

You need to earn or spend Hilton points every 12 months, which is on the short side. My usual strategy is to use Hilton Honors Dining to earn a few points at my neighborhood burger joint, but I was running short on time. I found that you can redeem Hilton points at Amazon through their Shop with Points program. The redemption ratio is 500 Hilton Honors points = $1 on Amazon.

First, link your Hilton Honors account to Amazon.

az_hilton

Next simply use as little as 5 Hilton Honors points to offset $0.01 of any purchase. If you were planing on buying something for $25, just pay for $0.01 with Hilton points, and $24.99 on your credit card. You used to be able to simply buy a $1 Amazon gift code for 500 points and call it a day, but that is no longer an option. If you have Amazon Prime and no other needs, you can still buy one of the following items that cost only $1 or less:

Checkout and choose to pay with Hilton Points, where you can specify to only use as little as 5 points ($0.01). You would want to make sure that it is in stock, so they charge you immediately.

Check for the activity to show up in your Hilton.com account the same day as it is shipped:

az_hilton2

Bottom line. If you have Hilton points expiring soon, you can redeem as little as 5 Hilton points for $0.01 off any Amazon purchase and create qualifying activity that posts the same day. If you have Amazon Prime, I share some $1 ideas. Hilton points are more valuable when redeemed for a free hotel night, but in this case it can be worth sacrificing a few to keep the rest alive and active.

Filed Under: Deals & Offers, Frugal Living
Last updated: May 23, 2019
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Comments

  1. Joshua Katt says
    March 23, 2018 at 6:25 am

    Thanks for this, going to do right away to be sure. IME, they do not enforce the 1 year policy as I have an active 150,000 point balance I haven’t done anything with in years. These points are like pesos and I need to run them off before completely worthless. .2 cents on Amazon maybe the best usage (last time I checked)

    Reply
  2. Joshua Katt says
    March 23, 2018 at 6:45 am

    BTW, you have to purchase a GC rather than simply reload your balance for the Hilton option to appear, at least for me.

    Reply
  3. Michael E Rohr says
    March 24, 2018 at 11:47 pm

    Thanks! Is there something similar for Marriott points?

    Reply
  4. Warren says
    August 16, 2018 at 9:47 am

    Thanks for this Jonathan! Exactly what I needed. Did this today to keep my points alive.

    Reply
  5. john says
    April 29, 2019 at 3:05 pm

    Could you update the link to the terms

    Reply
  6. Master W says
    May 6, 2019 at 12:10 pm

    You can’t buy/reload gift card anymore with Hilton Honors points

    Reply
  7. joshua Katt says
    May 23, 2019 at 7:35 am

    I just got my first Hilton email ever saying my points would expire in a week. I haven’t added or used the balance in years. You can’t by a GC as Mr. W states above but you can buy something and use 500 points for $1 and credit card for the rest of the balance !

    Reply
  8. Paul says
    May 24, 2019 at 8:25 am

    Why not give points to charity. The airlines even allow that and that is how we keep it from expiring. Do good.

    Reply
    • Jonathan Ping says
      May 24, 2019 at 10:34 am

      Donating point is certainly another option. I have donated miles in the past and I would do it again. The difference is that the minimums are usually higher (minimum for Hilton is 4,000 points I believe) and it is usually more efficient overall just to donate cash instead and use your Hilton points for hotel nights.

      Reply
  9. Mike says
    May 27, 2019 at 2:23 am

    I’ve tried purchasing $25 worth of stuff on amazon but the Hilton Hhonors option does not come up. When I try to link my Hhonors account the linked accounts screen shows none but when I try to add my account it shows it’s already listed. Help.

    Reply
  10. Sagarian says
    July 15, 2020 at 6:26 am

    Brilliant! Thank you.

    Reply

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